Labour: sees web science, particularly the semantic web, as an area where the UK can be a world leader.

Conservatives: see super-fast broadband as the driver for a stronger tech industry.

Liberal Democrats: want to see improved education in the subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths; propose Local Enterprise Funds to provide seed capital for start-ups.

Green Party: wants to boost the renewable energy industry; wants to see an increase in the UK's high-tech manufacturing base as a way to reduce the country's dependence on the financial services industry.

Pirate Party UK: sees the abolition of software patents as a way of spurring rapid change in the development industry; sees "overly-broad" hardware patents as disincentives to effective competition.

Labour: wants super-fast broadband across the country, with a rural roll-out ensured by a 50p levy on landlines.

Conservatives: want to complement a market-funded rollout of super-fast broadband with money from BBC licence fee; are keen on using ducts and other utilities infrastructure for fibre; want to change business rates for fibre to encourage new entrants.

Liberal Democrats: support Labour's 50p levy, but with conditions; want remote and rural areas targeted before urban areas; would promote public libraries as part of digital inclusion drive.

Green Party: would force BT to provide high-speed broadband to entire country; want local community banks to fund small businesses who want to set up online presence.

Pirate Party UK: wants people to only have to pay for the broadband speed they receive; wants to enforce net neutrality to allow internet start-ups to compete; wants to make ICT learning in schools less program-specific and more security-focused.

UKIP: opposes state funding for universal high-speed broadband access; opposes the 50p levy; wants local communities rather than central government to pay for a super-fast broadband roll-out where the market fails.

Labour: wants to make a vast amount of public data available in a form that can be easily interrogated; wants to put public services online with a view to eventually withdrawing offline access to some services.

Conservatives: want to put all major government spending details online; want to create a new "right to government data".

Liberal Democrats: want to make it easier for people to access public services online.

Green Party: says the internet has a major part to play in making information more accessible.

Pirate Party UK: wants all government data made public; would support right of whistleblowers and other critics of government policy to voice concerns online.

UKIP: wants to use technology to let citizens engage in the democratic process; proposes national and local referenda building on the Number 10 e-petitions model.

BNP: would give citizens the right to challenge personal data held by the state and private agencies such as credit bureaus.

SNP: says Scottish government has led the way on transparency through technology; acknowledges that personal interaction is preferable to online services for some citizens.

Plaid Cymru: points out that the Welsh National Assembly already has computers to let members talk to constituents during debates.

Labour: wants to publish general-purpose software as open-source "where appropriate"; points to the existing use of open-source software throughout the NHS and departmental websites.

Conservatives: are keen on open standards as the basis for more modular government IT projects, saying this would create a "level playing-field for open-source IT".

Liberal Democrats: think government should consider open-source software in all IT procurement, as it can be cheaper than proprietary or bespoke software.

Green Party: wants free and open-source software used whenever it can be "procured without significant extra costs or other detriments".

Pirate Party UK: thinks open-source software can play a role, but only where it is the "best tool for the job"; would implement current government's Open Source Action Plan, which it says is being ignored.

UKIP: would welcome a shift away from "more costly and inflexible" proprietary contracts to open-source software.

BNP: wants software to be chosen primarily on basis of security; otherwise, supports open source when cost-effective and beneficial for education.

SNP: opposes a preference for either open-source or proprietary software, arguing instead for the best-value package to be chosen at the time; notes cost of supporting open-source software; also notes unreliability of proprietary software in many large organisations.

Conservatives: would drop the ID cards scheme; would introduce a moratorium on all planned IT procurement projects; would introduce a presumption against any government IT project costing more than £100m.

Liberal Democrats: would scrap ID cards and the ContactPoint database, and end plans to store everyone's email and internet records "without good cause".

Pirate Party UK: opposes any monitoring of people's internet connections; wants all "secretive surveillance" to be a criminal offence.

UKIP: opposes the Digital Economy Act, based on the way it was hurried through the legislative process in the pre-election 'wash-up'.

BNP: supports copyright law but opposes a crackdown on downloaders — thinks uploaders should be targeted instead.

SNP: wants more collaboration with "global partners" to ensure harmonised laws; favours copyright enforcement but opposes the business secretary being able to amend copyright law without parliamentary scrutiny.

Green Party: wants tougher penalties for organisations that do not comply with data protection laws; wants to give more power to the information commissioner.

Pirate Party UK: sees the Data Protection Act (DPA) as "woefully inadequate"; wants to set a minimum level of security for all personal data held; wants a new right to compensation for data loss; wants data protection to be a criminal rather than civil matter.

Labour: says most attacks are foiled by firewalls, antivirus software and other "good practice" security measures; points to the role of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).

Conservatives: want to establish a new Cyber Threat and Assessment Centre.

Liberal Democrats: have no plans to change role of the CPNI; want to promote business continuity plans in the private sector.

Green Party: sees decentralisation, open source and the development of the 'smart grid' as reducing infrastructural risk.

Pirate Party UK: wants more funding for GCHQ and the security services to ensure critical infrastructure security; is keen on a decentralised national network; wants UK to help other countries protect their own, more vulnerable critical national infrastructures.

BNP: believes the national infrastructure can only be secured by renationalising the telecoms network.

SNP: sees opportunities for Scotland in protecting the critical national infrastructure, with renewable-energy-powered datacentres handling the storage and protection of data; is concerned over domain registry management provisions in the Digital Economy Act.

Labour: wants to make a vast amount of public data available in a form that can be easily interrogated; wants to put public services online with a view to eventually withdrawing offline access to some services.

Conservatives: want to put all major government spending details online; want to create a new "right to government data".

Liberal Democrats: want to make it easier for people to access public services online.

Green Party: says the internet has a major part to play in making information more accessible.

Pirate Party UK: wants all government data made public; would support right of whistleblowers and other critics of government policy to voice concerns online.

UKIP: wants to use technology to let citizens engage in the democratic process; proposes national and local referenda building on the Number 10 e-petitions model.

BNP: would give citizens the right to challenge personal data held by the state and private agencies such as credit bureaus.

SNP: says Scottish government has led the way on transparency through technology; acknowledges that personal interaction is preferable to online services for some citizens.

Plaid Cymru: points out that the Welsh National Assembly already has computers to let members talk to constituents during debates.

David Meyer is a freelance technology journalist. He fell into journalism when he realised his musical career wouldn't be paying many bills. His early journalistic career was spent in general news, working behind the scenes for BBC radio and on-air as a newsreader for independent stations. David's main focus is on communications, of both...
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